It is beans until proven otherwise

I disliked cooking a lot. I can handle anyother house chore, even washing plate but please don't ask me to cook. I guess it was triggered from my childhood experiences.

We had a house help growing who did everything in regards to the kitchen.
My Mom hates laziness, so to make us house chore useful she always allocated portions to us. I was always excluded from anything kitchen apart from washing plates.
I never thought i would have any reason to enter the kitchen. My favourite comment was "i will hire a househelp or eat outside."
Reality dawned on me when i became an undergraduate. For the first year i was under the covering of my roommate who was a final year student.
Yeah your guess is actually right. He was the one cooking. It was so fun that his two younger brothers and cousin brother was staying with us, so we were like five in the room. I accommodated all because he was a nice guy and he could also cook😂😂.

When all my siblings learnt to cook, i was washing plates. Misplaced priorities.

It finally dawned on me when my good and nice roommate graduated. You know what that means right?
I had to live alone or find another roommate. I knew deep down if i had gotten a roommate, he may not be as nice as my previous roommate which will cause me headache. So i summoned courage, "I'll stay alone" i said to myself.

When the semester started, i moved into a new spot. I used my break to learn a few things in the kitchen though not much cause it wasn't my thing.
I had been doing a terrific job with the basic food every human being should know how to prepare.

Yeah i believe there are basic food everybody should know how to prepare. Speaking because I've learned how to cook it😂😂😂

Till i decided to make beans.

I know what's going through your mind "what's difficult in making beans?" You only say that because you didn't spend time washing only plates.

I called my mum that morning before going to school that I wanted to make beans.
She was happy just after she spent 2 minutes of my airtime laughing at me. She gave me her perfect recipe.

I never knew you don't cook beans when you have lectures the next hour.

I was thinking it was goingto be like indomie or frying yam.

I started the journey to make my village people proud. The beans was finally on the fire and boiling, it looked really weird.

"Is it how it was meant to look?" I asked myself.

I quickly checked the time and discovered I was late for lectures. So i quickly wore my clothes and rushed out of the room, entered bike and 15 minutes later I was in my lecture hall. 24 minutes late but right on time before the lecturer closed the door. No more late coming.

"Thank God" i exclaimed.

The lecture started and 30 minutes into the lecture it dawned on me

"My beans" i left it burning on the gas. i couldn't say anything..i was just speechless for God knows how long.

Immediately the lecturer left the hall, i quickly followed behind him. My friends wondered why i didn't even say hello
.
I was just thinking how many of my kidneys will i have to sell if my lodge was burnt down.

I got to the lodge everything was still intact.

"Thank God" i shouted.

I rushed into my room and straight into the kitchen.
What happened was that my gas had finished but before it did, what I saw in the pot looked like it wanted to be beans at some point but it couldn't.

Deep down i knew that if i hadn't charred that beans it would have almost come out well
No promises though.

Luckily i had to fill only 1kg of gas that morning which wasn't a normal thing for me. I always like filling it but that day i just decided 1kg will be enough to attempt beans.

Beans well attempted.

#inkwellprompt #nonfiction #writing #theinkwell #creativenonfiction